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Heart-Healthy Lifestyle Offsets Genetic Stroke Risk
A healthy cardiovascular lifestyle at midlife can reduce the risk of stroke in individuals with high genetic risk by as much as 43%, according to study findings published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
“Our study confirmed that modifying lifestyle risk factors, such as controlling blood pressure, can offset a genetic risk of stroke,” said study senior author Myriam Fornage, PhD, a professor of molecular medicine and human genetics at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas, Health Science Center, Houston. “We can use genetic information to determine who is at higher risk and encourage them to adopt a healthy cardiovascular lifestyle, such as following the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7, to lower that risk and live a longer, healthier life.”
The study included 11,568 adults between the ages of 45 and 64. All were stroke-free at baseline and were followed for a median 28 years.
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Researchers assessed levels of cardiovascular health for participants using the Life’s Simple 7 recommendations, which include not smoking, eating better, getting physical activity, losing weight, managing blood pressure, controlling cholesterol, and reducing blood sugar. An individual’s lifetime risk of stroke was gauged using a validated stroke polygenic risk score.
Participants with the highest genetic stroke risk and the poorest cardiovascular health lifestyle at age 45 had the highest lifetime risk of stroke: 25%. However, participants who practiced optimal cardiovascular health had a 30% to 43% lower risk of stroke across all genetic risk score categories, according to the study.
“This corresponded to almost 6 additional years lived free of stroke,” researchers reported.
Overall, 6.2% of participants with high adherence to the Life’s Simple 7 recommendations experienced stroke, compared with 56.8% of participants with low adherence, the study found.
“Maintaining an optimal cardiovascular health was associated with the lowest lifetime risk estimates,” researchers wrote, “emphasizing the importance of modifiable risk factors in prevention efforts to reduce stroke risk for all.”
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